BartBlog

Well what can I say? I almost grew up reading Christopher Hitchens. Unfortunately we are not that far apart in age, or vices, but he is a little older, wiser and incredibly talented and I guess I should add, perceptive and smart. SOB, I hate him.

OK, not true, I admired him for many years reading his stuff in “The Nation Magazine,” then something happened. He went wacky with 9/11 and his obvious hateful campaign against the Muslims. It’s as if I saw a person I recognized and admired and then with the mention of Iraq, another person presented itself.

Well, after searching a little because I normally buy my books at Costco, yes I confess that much, I finally bit the bullet and bought 5 or 6 of Christopher’s books from Amazon, I really only wanted “God is not Great; How Religion Poisons Everything” but let’s face it, he has an impressive number of books with very suggestive titles. I am not sorry I bought more books.

So let’s get to the meat of the matter, the God book. Wow, should I say it again, Wow. This SOB blew me away. I have read many books on religion over the past year for pure intellectual curiosity, and I found them all lacking in one way or another. I have to admit, Mr. Hitchens covers everything, many books I have already read, books I have yet to read, all the philosophers from my philosophy 101 class and more, much more. This is the most thorough book I have read on religion, its thinking, consequences and effects on the real world I have ever read.

My hat off to you Mr. Hitchens, as much as I have cursed you, you have really proven yourself as an incredible adversary with the most amount of ammunition in any argument you chose to indulge in. You are still wrong on 9/11 and Iraq and that is your weak point, but we all have one.Ok, first about this book, before I read it, I read Sam Harris’, “The end of Faith,” Bart D. Ehram,” Misquoting Jesus,” and James M. Robinson, “The Secrets of Judas.” An excellent feature of Mr. Hitchens’ book is that it includes for better or worse, a synopsis of all these books so you do have to spend valuable time reading these other books. You may still want to read “The End of Faith” I found it very insightful but also somewhat limited in scope, (I guess in essence Mr. Hitchens’ book covers almost the same territory and beyond and in almost 100 pages less, OK, I loaned the book out I do not have it here to check.) Also “Misquoting Jesus” although very good, the entire book could have probably have been boiled down to one paragraph unless you are trying to decipher the scrolls yourself.

So immediately it’s a hit with me because I can save many hours reading other books. But there are other things that make this a unique experience. Thought Mr. Hitchens is of a Jewish mother and thus Jewish by birth, he took a tour through many of the known religions and he does not hold back on any of them. He is equally clear in disproving all religions no matter what they are or his affiliation. I truly found this approach as very refreshing. However there were times I did feel he reserved a special place of disrespect for Muslims. More on that in a bit.He manages to go through the Old Testament, New Testament, the Koran, various philosophers from Socrates up to the modern time and our founding fathers and beyond. It is almost hard to imagine how one person could have crammed so much information into a mere 283 pages.

The arguments are clear, the reasoning very straight forward and agree with him or not, very persuasive. This book is truly deserves a place in every thinking person’s library.

OK, Other thoughts. It is incomprehensible to me that such a curious critical person would swallow hook line and sinker the 9/11 story, as Mr. Hitchens almost confesses in this book. How can you be so critical in your thinking of religion, and rightly so I may add, but not question 9/11? After the Liberty, Kennedy, Gulf of Tonkin, Bobby, Nixon and everything he did, Reagan and the arms for hostages, Election 2000; you have questioned it all but you will not question 9/11 and our reason for being in Iraq? I guess that is where many people that admire, or admired you get lost. I hope one day you can explain. It is obvious you hate Muslims for many reasons, but there is more to that story.

So, in my first shipment from Amazon I also got, “The Missionary Position,” and, “the Trial of Henry Kissinger.” Both highly readable, interesting, informative and entertaining. Excellent reading recommended for every serious person.